It can no longer be said that Elkhart County has the highest unemployment rate in the State of Indiana.

In the May 2009 report, the Howard County/ Kokomo area now has that distinction.

In fact, the Howard County rate was nearly two full percentage points higher than Elkhart County’s.

For now, Elkhart County can go back to being famous for its Jazz Festival—on tap for next weekend. “It is, it is good to not be at the top of that list that we didn’t want to be at the top of,” said Kyle Hannon of the Elkhart Area Chamber of Commerce. “At the same time, you know, our hearts go out to the people in Howard County.”

Elkhart County’s unemployment rate in May stood at 17.5 percent. That marked the second straight monthly decrease since the rate hit a record 18.9 percent in March.

In May, Howard County’s unemployment rate skyrocketed to 19.3 percent. That was up from just 12.6 percent in April as 2,246 addition people joined the ranks of the unemployed in May.

“The reason Howard County numbers went up so much is that Chrysler was closed while awaiting a decision on their future,” said U.S. Rep. Joseph Donnelly of Indiana’s Second District. “We are in a position now where approximately 4,500 people will be going back to work June 29th.”

Meantime, work designed to bring additional jobs to Elkhart County continues, despite a close call. “When I looked at our monthly expenditures and what was in the savings account, I said we have to shut the doors in July,” said Dorinda Heiden Guss with the Elkhart County Economic Development Corporation.

That’s right. The corporation formed to bring new business to town—was in danger of going out of business.

“We were down to 2,000 dollars in our savings account as of Tuesday,” said Heiden Guss. “The check from the City of Elkhart came on Wednesday so that’s how close it has been.”

Local government leaders stepped up to keep the office open at the E.D.C., in the hopes that a brighter figure may be on the other end of the phone line.

“As far as prospective new activity in Elkhart County specifically has had at least 69-prospective companies in our first quarter.” Heiden Guss said that compares to 89-prosecutive contacts in all of 2008.

“Hopefully a trend is starting to form in Elkhart County,” said Kyle Hannon. “If we can put maybe six months together or more we can say yeah this is definitely moving in the right direction.”